*Not an easy task to imagine such a passionately vivid, clever, stimulating, brillant and funny man to have left us, butJohn RICHARDSON has passed away, after an outstanding life that spanned 95 years. First in London, where he was born in 1924, and then in New York, where he settled in 1960, after spending time in the castle of Castille, Provence, France, where he lived ten years with Douglas COOPER, PICASSO’s close friend – a friendship John RICHARDSON has brought to life in The Sorcerer’ s apprentice (1999). A curator of many exhibitions, in New York, London and Paris, a collaborator for some of the greatest auctions houses, a friend of some of the best artists of the XXth century, from FrancisBACON to PICASSO, not to mention AndyWARHOL and Lucian FREUD – who painted his portrait -,John RICHARDSON was totaly involved, since 1980, in writing a unique biographyA life of PICASSO(Random house, then Knopff). He passed away in New York city as he was finishing the fourth volume, focused on his life in the 30s and 40s, but his assistants, led by Ross FINOCCHIO, will keep working on this outstanding recreation of a life, day after day, without complacency nor prejudice.

CLAUDE ARNAUDHAS WRITTEN A TEXT,« MINOTAUR, BANDERILLO », DEDICATED TO THE PICASSO-COCTEAU FRIENDSHIP, FOR THE CATALOG OF AN EXHIBITION CURATED BY JOHN RICHARDSON AT THE GAGOSIAN GALERY OF NEW YORK (FALL 2010), PICASSO, THE MEDITERRANEAN YEARS, 1942-1965. GET THAT CATALOG…